GEORGE WILLEY CHAPMAN. BY PAUL LANG, OF ORford. George Willey Chapman was born in New Chester, now Hill, in November, 1827; was educated at Northfield and Hill academy, and at Cleveland, Ohio, studied law with Willey & Carey of Cleveland, with J. D. Sleeper of Hill, and with Nesmith & Pike of Franklin, and was admitted to the bar at Plymouth in 1849. He practised at Hill till 1853, and then removed to Haverhill, where shortly afterwards he married Eleanor H. Towle. He was one of the original members and the first secretary of the Grafton and Coös Bar Association. He was also one of the first movers in the formation of the National Bar Association, holding prominent positions in that organization. In all the associations of the members of his profession he was equally efficient and unostentatious, being especially useful in the performance of the great variety of duties usually devolving upon committees and the secretaries. He remained in the active practice of his profession at Haverhill until 1892. For a period of more than thirty years he was secretary of the Grafton County Bar. He was also president of Bradford Savings Bank and Trust Company at Bradford, Vt., from 1883 till his death. During his life in Haverhill he held many positions of trust and honor in the community where he lived. At his home in Haverhill, the court and bar boarded from 1855 till 1874, whenever court was in session, and around his table were gathered some of the brightest minds of Grafton county. His first wife, Eleanor H. Towle, was a sister of Elizabeth T. Morgan, so well known during the past fifty years by all New Hampshire lawyers. She was a constant visitor at the house of Mr. Chapman, and after the death of her husband, Dr. Hiram Morgan, she made her home with him. After coming to Haverhill, his business rapidly increased, and the old dockets of Grafton county will show that, from 1855 to 1875, he had one of the largest and most lucrative practices of any lawyer at the Grafton County bar. He was a social, genial gentleman, for whom every one in the community had a good word, and in return he spoke well of all. His enemies were few and his friends a legion. He was a brilliant conversationalist, quick in repartee, and he was never more happy than when surrounded by his many friends, and while providing them with the bounteous hospitalities of his well-built, well-furnished home, and enlivening them with his quick wit and amusing stories. In society in Haverhill, he was a leader; no place of entertainment was complete without his pleasant face and pleasing address. Much of his time was spent in giving pleasure to others, no matter what the exertion was to himself. In conferring happiness upon others, he obtained it in a great measure himself. His practice as a lawyer was wide and varied. It extended over a period of forty years, and covered every conceivable kind of litigation. He was a careful, painstaking, patient lawyer, giving every case the closest scrutiny and attention, and when his opinion was once formed as to the merits of his cause, to it he clung with tenacity, giving the most cogent reasons for his position, and citing all the authorities that had any bearing upon his side of the contention. As a speaker, he was always ready, naturally fluent, with a good command of language; his broad and comprehensive intellect at once grasped the salient points of his case, and brought them home to his hearers with a power and force that was convincing. In many a hard-fought forensic battle at the bar, pitted against the best legal talent of our country, he has come off victor. He had remarkable business ability, and was always a leader in all enterprises that had a tendency to better his town and state; his judgment upon all these matters was always sought by his fellowtownsmen and that judgment generally proved to be correct. During the last ten years of his life, he took great pride in his connection with the Bradford bank. He took hold of this institution when its condition needed an able financier at its head, and that it found in him; he brought to bear upon it all his skill and talent, and soon had it upon a firm foundation and though other banks were in trouble, his stood all assaults, and he left it one of the strongest banks in the state of Vermont. In his home life, he was one of the most companionable of men, always pleasant, of even disposition and unruffled temper; the hours he spent with his family were replete with instruction and mental enjoyment. His fund of anecdote and story was large; he always had some new story to relate and always told it well. During all his life he was an omnivorous reader; his reading covered the whole field of literature, and being a close student, what he read he remembered, and this vast store of information was always ready to be drawn from, at the briefest notice, upon any occasion. During the last ten years of the life of his wife, Eleanor Towle Chapman, she was a confirmed invalid; during all this period he was the most tender and devoted of husbands; her slightest wants were anticipated, and his treatment of her was most gentle and affectionate. He gave her nearly all his time and attention, taking himself away from his professional duties to be able to be with her, and make her life as pleasant and comfortable as possible. On many an occasion she has said to me, "No woman ever had a better husband." In January, 1891, his house, where he had resided during all his married life in Haverhill, was destroyed by fire, and soon afterwards, on the 19th day of February, 1891, occurred the death of his wife, one of the kindest and most estimable ladies it was ever my good fortune to meet. The destruction of his house and the death of his wife seemed in a measure to sever the tie that had for so many years bound him to Haverhill, and he removed permanently to Bradford, Vt.., in April, 1892, where the remaining days of his life were past. Here he met, and on June 15, 1893, married Maria L. Bicknell, who survives him. His second marriage was especially happy, and the last three years of his life, spent with his wife, living summers in a beautiful cottage on the picturesque shore of Lake Morey, at Fairlee, Vt., away from the cares and worries of business and his profession, and winters in Bradford, Vt., were, I am inclined to believe, among the best and happiest of his whole life. Here in this peaceful and rustic retreat, while feeling well, and seemingly in the full enjoyment of health and strength, the end came, and his light went out, after only a few hours of suffering, on August 11, 1896. We all remember him, and will continue to do so through the coming years, a bright, level-headed, keen lawyer, an able, honest, business man, a wise benefactor, and a kind and loving husband. His animated countenance and sparkling words will no longer cheer us, his fund of anecdote and story will no longer amuse us, but the memories of the past, and our connection with him, will ever be a pleasure and delight to us all. GEORGE A. BINGHAM AND OSSIAN RAY. A COMPARISON. BY HON. GEORGE N. DALE. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Grafton and Coos Bar Association: It occurs to me that it is more desirable and useful to speak of our brethren who have gone home from Court as we saw them living and to analyze their lives and work rather than indulge in the emotional. I am not, however, indifferent to the fact that the sensations one experiences in passing swiftly through life (and especially after getting well along the way), are peculiar and exceedingly interesting. Even minds cooled by the philosophies of life are thrilled when each looks back upon his own hopes, ambitions, and purposes in life and reflects that he once thought that none could ever have had such burning hopes, such exalted and grand aspirations, or such important purposes as his own. There is no love nor sorrow nor hope like one's own. Kindly Nature did well to give each some sacred thoughts he'd "scarcely tell ta ony." It gives a curious, even if it is a selfish, zest to living. And so it is well that "There are things of which we may not speak; There are dreams that cannot die; There are things that make the strong heart weak, And a mist before the eye." Oh, life! life! How it sobs and throbs in secret! And then in its common metres all our hearts accompany the pulsations of others as long as we live. So human senti |